This invention relates to a recording head position adjusting mechanism in an ink jet recording apparatus.
If a black recording head and a color recording head are mounted on a single carriage in order to compose a color printer using a serial type on-demand ink jet recording apparatus, the mechanical tolerances and mounting tolerances inherent in the respective recording heads cause relative positioning errors, and these errors cannot form satisfactory color images.
To overcome this problem, a mechanism disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 7-314851 was considered. This mechanism not only corrects an inclination of each recording head independently by interposing a rotary correcting plate in either one of scanning directions on a contact surface extending in parallel to the scanning directions, but also adjusts a sheet feed direction in one of the recording head based upon the other recording head by interposing an adjusting plate on either one of positioning surfaces extending in parallel to the scanning directions. This mechanism provides the advantage that the inclination adjustment as well as the position adjustment in the sheet feed direction of the recording heads can be made simultaneously. However, these adjustments require that a plurality of rotary correcting plates and adjusting plates whose thicknesses are different according to amount of correction required. Also, such adjustments are likely to cause slight recording head positioning errors during the process of inserting correcting plates and adjusting plates. Accordingly, it is desired to provide a recording head positioning mechanism which overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art.